a thread runs through my life and it always needs untangling

SHOWTIME! or The Infinite Wisdom of the Powers That Be

The students are back. Classes start Monday. Overnight the campus went from seeming like a quiet restful park, a few people, the squirrels, and me- to a weekend rock festival, crowds, music, parties, and traffic.

Deadlines approach and supposedly I spent the summer preparing. What I actually did was go to Europe, then Music Circus, and when I got back and because there was nothing that needed immediate attention I was, well, a bit lazy.

Please, taking care of yourself.

No, you were lazy.

Really? Because I went to the masseuse, the dentist, the farmer’s market, petted the cat, cleaned the house, got a haircut? Took a vacation?

So this week I had a panic attack and went into production mode.

Because:

Costume storage. Last year we shifted from expecting to find Dracula’s coffin in our dungeon of a space to checking for anacondas in the jungle of clothes. It was that jam packed with extra racks squeezed into every available space.

I usually do some stock reorganizing during the summer but this year it was on hold while the TD built me some extra hanging space above the exsisting fixed racks. Thumbs Up!

Then to clear the floor space of all the extra racks, he put everything from the rolling racks all the way up near the ceiling. These are the items we need all the time, pants, petticoats, and skirts. Since I don’t want to be that costumer who dies from falling off a ladder under a pile of clothes in a locked room all by herself with no cell phone reception, I put reorganize stock on the list for the work study kids. Which I need to do with them because I am tired of finding contemporary nighties in the medieval section and, well, ladders.

Only a few other things are happening at that same time.

The department decided to do a opening of the semester show the 1st week of classes. 2 actors, not complicated, but it means I will be in dress rehearsals next week. Also production meetings, welcome back events, and measurements, shopping, designing for the actual 1st show, and patterns for the 2nd show which is a period piece.

Knowing all this, I got the shop cleaned, organized, and ready to go. I also dealt with all the costumes that overflowed into another room which is now going to be a design classroom.

BUT there was a glitch.

Of course there was, mercury is in retrograde

A couple of weeks ago, I tripped a breaker. Only one machine and the iron were on so this should not have happened. The electrician came, assessed the situation, and decided the shop needed more power. Surprise! I only asked for this when we moved into the room 3 years ago. Last week they rewired the costume shop and the laundry room and the adjacent design room. Like any remodleing project on an older building, they kept uncovering more broken disfunctional things and making a bigger mess and so it went on. Finished except for “just 1 more thing” on Friday.

I am ready to go? No, but hey, if there was really enough time to get things done, I’d never do anything.